


The Truest Heart

by Civilliany



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:26:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1477978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Civilliany/pseuds/Civilliany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Completely AU Story </p><p>Felicity Smoak has three hearts. The first was the one she showed strangers. The second was the one that she showed her family. The last, the most important, and the truest of her hearts, she showed and shared with her soul mate, Oliver Queen. </p><p>Felicity Smoak is orphaned heiress with a genius-level IQ who experienced loss that no one could fully comprehend. She is haunted by the demons of her past and chased by the pressures of her future. Her past, her present, and her future are all about to collide and the safety of her three hearts will hang precariously in the balance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> My muse demanded this Olicity fic to be written, even though I should be finishing my last ever university paper for my international law class that is due tomorrow, but here it is anyway because fanfiction is so much more fun to write than things like international trade law. There is no sleep for the wicked, or in my case no sleep for the procrastinator. Thank god for coffee. 
> 
> This newest fic is inspired by the latest episode of NCIS: LA titled "Three Hearts" and an idea that had been swimming in my head for the last few weeks. Hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> As always comments and kudos do make my day, so comment and click away!

**Prologue**

_The human heart is the most peculiar of all our organs. An organ, the size of a human fist, is the only thing that keeps us alive. Literally, without it, we are dead. What makes it even more fascinating is that it is also where the strongest of our human emotions makes its bed. Love is the most powerful human emotion exhibited and felt by man. Love defies all logic and reason.  Love can make us invincible, just as easily as it can destroy us. Love is maddening and heartbreaking. Love is pure unfiltered happiness and light. Love can be absolutely everything and it can be absolutely nothing. Love cannot be defined. Love does not have to be justified. Love just is._

_Humans have always been told that there exists only one heart, but in truth three actually exist._

_First is the heart that we show to strangers. This is the least vulnerable of our hearts. The least impacted and the most easily transfigured for our needs. It is the heart that we most easily discard._

_Second is the heart that we show to our families. This is the first heart that we form. It exists the moment we are conceived and strengthened when we enter the world. It is the heart that connects immediately with those who make our lives possible, our mothers and fathers. It is the heart that is most easily disappointed. The one most easily tarnished and cracked. It is also the heart that first provides our first smiles, our first laughs. It is the heart that first introduces us to love, pure unadulterated love._

_Last is the heart that is the most vulnerable. The most dangerous of all our hearts. It has the power to completely destroy us or completely heal us. It encompasses every human emotion. It is the heart that we share with that one person who completes us on this world. The one we share only with our soul mate. It is a savage beast that is formed of pure unadulterated love. It is our greatest vulnerability. The heart we most reverently guard with everything we have. It defines everything we have been, everything we are, and everything that we will ever be. It is the truest of all our hearts._

**Chapter 1**  

_Felicity Smoak has three hearts._

The first is the one that she shows to strangers. The one publicized and televised for the world to see. It is the heart that her employees see. It is the one that her investors see. It is the ones that her enemies see. It is a heart she has carefully and strategically cultivated in all her years of life. Felicity Smoak is the CEO of one of the largest transnational applied sciences corporations in the world, a title that she was entrusted with the moment she turned 21. It was the title she was destined to fulfill the moment she was welcomed into the world. The daughter of a billionaire and a world renowned scientist, she embodies every characteristic that is expected of her. She is wildly intelligent, kind, beautiful, sassy, diligent, polite, respectful, stoic, and a whole host of others that she has added to her first heart. This is the heart she wears most of the time. It is the heart that emerged when she lost her mother. It is the heart that emerged when she lost her father. It is the heart she hates most but understands its utility. It is the heart that she has accepted as the one that she will have to live with for the rest of her life.

The second is the one that has nearly shattered, clinging together by mere threads. It was the heart that was cracked when she lost when her mother died of cancer when she was 12 years old. It was the heart that nearly obliterated when she watched her father die in front of her eyes in a hail of gunfire at the age of 16. It is the heart held together by her godparents, John and Lyla. It is the heart held together by her best friends Thea and Roy. It is the heart that has nearly darkened due to the sadness which has followed her around from the moment she learnt of her mother’s illness. It is the heart that she has learnt to draw smiles and laughs out of because her family needs to see it. It is the heart that works the hardest to continue on.

The last one is the one that she never believed she would ever have. She had seen the heart before of course. She saw that heart when her parents looked at each other when they thought no one was looking. It was the heart she knew that beat when John and Lyla were in each other’s vicinity. It was the heart she saw formed when her best friend Thea met her other best friend Roy. It was the heart that slowly began to form when she was 17 years old. It had been a year since the attack. The attack that killed her father and left her an orphan. The attack that made her dreams, her nightmares. The attack that left scars, ones that could be seen and the ones that could not. The attack that brought her, her other half into her life as the protector she did not ask for and the guardian angel she so desperately needed. The attack brought her Oliver Queen, the person that made her last heart, her truest heart, and her most vulnerable heart, beat.

 

_Oliver Queen has three hearts._

The first heart is the one he shows to strangers. It is the heart that was formed when he joined the military at 18 years old. It is the one that his fellow soldiers saw. It was the one his superiors saw. It is the one that everyone now sees. He is a soldier through and through. He is stoic, shows no emotions, a strategic thinker, characterized by a deep sense of honour and duty. It is the heart that houses his strengths and his abilities as a fighter and survivor. This is the heart that he wears most of the time. This is heart that dictates the majority of his behaviour in every aspect of his life. It is the heart that wears greatly on him. The heart that drained from him of most of his humanity. The heart that he once saw as his salvation now a gapping black hole. It is the heart that he has accepted but one he wishes he could change.

The second heart is the one he shows to his family. This is the heart that beats for only one person, his sister, Thea. This heart used to beat for his parents until he lost both of them in a freak boating accident at 17. It is the heart forged of both happiness and despair. The heart that is grateful for to the Smoak family for taking Thea in when he left for the military at 18. It is the heart that was almost consumed by darkness until he was reminded that it beat for a purpose, it beat for his family, and would continue to beat until he drew his last breath. It is heart that works the hardest to solider on.

The last heart is one that he never expected or ever wanted. To him this heart was a myth, told by people who believed in the fantasy of true love and soul mates. A creation to make people feel better about themselves, to make them feel less lonely at night when they were surrounded by the cold and darkness, to provide them with a false dream and sense of reality. It blindsided him at the age of 22. He had spent the last five years in the military, three of which was spent in an elite-level Special Forces unit. One that he was discharged from with honourable distinction for duty served because of injuries sustained during numerous fire fights. He never understood why he was discharged, yes he had been injured, yes he had sustained trauma both physical and mental, but he was still a soldier, willing and ready to fight and die for his country. It was his sister who urged him to take on the job as Felicity’s bodyguard. It was a year after she had lost her father in an attack that could only be described as deadly, strategic, and entirely targeted. She had been lucky to survive the attack. Felicity needed a protector and he needed a new purpose. Little did he know that she would begin to heal all the cracks that had formed in all his other hearts. He never expected her to evoke such beating from a heart he never thought existed. He never expected to find his soul mate the way he did, but there she was an angel that the world had tried to bring to her knees. The job brought him to his soul mate, the person who made his last heart, his truest heart, spur to life and beat for.

...

Death and despair have a way of bringing people together, sometime quite unexpectedly, and sometimes for the best. Death and despair brought Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen together. At first they revealed their first hearts to each other, strangers that did not trust nor understood each other. Their second hearts were revealed to each other when they saw the love that was evoked from their respective hearts for the families they had, both those made by blood and those made by choice. The truest of their hearts were the hardest and took the longest to reveal themselves to each other. Slowly, but surely, their truest hearts began to connect with one another, evoked emotions that neither could comprehend nor wanted to comprehend, and begin to heal the damage that had been inflicted upon their other hearts. Their last hearts, their truest hearts, formed an unbreakable, yet unspoken bond

Felicity and Oliver both have three hearts, all of which would come under jeopardy when the Felicity’s past would collide with her present and alter her future. It is said that love is the strongest emotion that human beings could exhibit or feel. It is the emotion that defies all logic and reason. The emotion housed in our hearts, the strongest being housed in the truest of our hearts. What would they do when their hearts come under fire? Does love really conquer all? Or is the darkness too strong? What would they do to protect their truest hearts?


	2. Touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for the amazing response to this story! I'm really glad that so many of you are enjoying it and so many of you are finding it so interesting. I'm am now preparing for my finals but I may be able to sneak in some writing time between study sessions. 
> 
> Keep on commenting because I love hearing what you guys have to say about the story. 
> 
> As always, thank you for the continued support and I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

_Love they say is the most powerful of all the human emotions. It is a fundamental element of human life. It can make your world complete or completely burn it to the ground. It can take your breath away or make it impossible for you to breathe. It can give us strength to fight and overcome unimaginable obstacles or it can bring darkness to your soul. Sometimes it comes like a tidal wave, knocking you off the ground, drowning you in a beautiful blinding light. Other times it slips through all those tiny little cracks that you thought nothing could get through and surround you in utter comfort and warmth. Some need it to survive. Others do not even know of its existence. Love has the power to create the impossible. Love has the ability to cause massive destruction. Love has the power to heal. Love has the power to damage. Love just is, it cannot be quantified or reduced. Love can only be magnified. It is a fundamental part of us. True love requires truth, trust, strength, risk, and most importantly, it requires your heart, your truest heart._

 

Felicity never understood how a single touch could calm completely calm her nerves, relieve all the tension from her body, lull her mind into a place of serenity and give her strength, all at once. But there it was. His hands holding her hand, thumb gently gliding repetitively over her knuckles, always moving from the left to the right, always lingering a little longer on her ring finger.  She couldn’t remember when he first started this ritual. It was his way to try, in some small innocuous manner, to give her some peace before she was forced into the spotlight. She was grateful for it. She was grateful for him. She never expected him. She never knew how she would come to rely on him. Never knew how much she needed him. But now she didn’t know if she could survive without him.

 

He came into her life with the sole purpose of protecting her from danger. To guard her from those who wished to harm her. She never expected him to be anything else but a soldier, intent on guarding her life with his. Like a small trickle of water, he began to embed himself in all the parts of her life. To outside world he was her bodyguard. To her family he was just a dear friend. To her, he was everything. His touches not only calmed her but they excited her as well. His touches aroused something deep and primal within her that she had never felt with anyone else. Every touch evoked a feeling of safety and trust, as well as a promise. And that was what she was frightened her the most. 

 

After her parents’ death, Felicity vowed to herself never to open herself up to that kind of vulnerability again. Trust was something that did not come easily to Felicity. It was one of the reasons why her only true friends consisted of two people, Thea and Roy. Felicity trusted both of them with her life and her privacy. They were more than just her friends, they were her family. She could depend on them no matter what. And for that she was grateful for. But he was different. She knew he was different from the moment they meet. It was funny that she had never met Thea’s older brother until she was 17 but the circumstances of their lives saw to that.

 

She remembered every detail of their first meeting. John and Lyla had insisted that she hire a personal bodyguard, to have with her at all times. She knew that they meant well. She knew that it was for her own safety, especially after the attack, but she still didn’t like the idea of having a personal bodyguard. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had personal security her entire life but this was different. The bodyguard would be with her at all times, rarely leaving her side, always having her within a line of sight. It made her immensely uncomfortable being watched so closely all the time. But after much pressuring from John and Lyla, and Thea offering her brother for the position, she relented.

 

She felt the power and confidence roll off him the moment he entered the room. She looked him dead in the eye, beautiful bright blue eyes, and shook his hand. It was their first touch, a touch that changed everything. He assured her that he would protect her with his life, if need be. He assured her that she could trust him, depend on him. As she looked into his eyes in that moment she really wanted to believe him, she really wanted to trust him, but her fear, her memories, her scars, told her otherwise. He would have to earn her trust, her faith in him, and he did.

 

Over the years she came to trust him, believe in him. She began to fall in love with him. He became her vulnerability. He gave her, her third heart. Her truest heart. And that scared her the most. He was the one person she could not live without. The one person that truly made her whole by healing all her previous heartbreaks. When she was with him, she knew everything would be okay. Over the years she had grown to equally cherish and despise his position as her bodyguard. She cherished it because it meant that he was with her all the time, giving her strength when she needed it the most. She despised it because it meant that he was risking his life to protect hers. She knew that if she lost him it would be the end of her. She had lost too much already. She had risked herself too many times by opening herself up. That was what scared of most.

 

…

 

He never thought her touch would bring him such peace. Even the smallest touch was able to calm all the demons he fought so hard to control. He never expected her. He never thought that after all he had saw, all he had faced, all that he had done, that he would deserve someone like her in his life. But there he was with her left hand secured between both of his. His thumb lightly trailing across her knuckles. Her ring finger slightly twitching and pressing into his hand every time his thumb passed by.  He began this ritual soon after she had been made CEO. They had been headed to her second media gauntlet announcing a new piece of revolutionary tech in bioengineering that would change how mutating cells were detected in people with cancer, giving them a better chance of discovering the cancer earlier. He knew how important this piece of technology was to her, knew the significance it held to her. She had been nervous, more nervous than he had ever seen her. To everyone else she would’ve looked the picture of cool calm collected grace. But he knew better. He knew her better.

 

She was never supposed to become part of his life. She was supposed to be a job, a job that was supposed to pay for the bills until he figured out what to do with the rest of his life. She wasn’t supposed to be the rest of his life. To the public she was nothing more than a job. To his family she had become a dear friend. To him she had become everything. When he entered her life, his sole purpose was to protect her from any threat to her life. He had read the file, saw the photos, and watched the surveillance video of the attack. He understood why she needed protection. Those men that entered the conference room were not your average hired guns. No, they were expertly trained ruthless assassins, armed with high-powered weapons, with only one intention: to kill everyone in the room. She was lucky to have survived. And for that he was so grateful. He never intended for her to embed herself so perfectly into every aspect of his life. But she did.

 

Somehow, in some unknown way, she had become his sole purpose. His job was to protect from her harm. His job was never supposed to entail offering her guidance when she asked or acting as a sounding board when she needed to work through a problem. He was never supposed to be the person she turned to for comfort or peace of mind. He was never supposed to be able to tell her every mood, her every thought, from just a slight twitch of her mouth or movement in her hand. He was never supposed to fall in love with her.  But here he was, completely, immensely and irrecoverably in love with her.  

 

He was damaged. He knew that. Spending three years in an elite Special Forces unit, completing orders that no other soldiers were capable of, changed him. It darkened the soul. Mutating it into something that completely unrecognizable. They say taking another person’s life changes a person. He now understood that better than most others. The lives he had taken were never going to leave him. He could picture every target. He could still see their faces in his scope, feel the wind on his face, and the scent of the air as he pulled the trigger. Those were not the only deaths that haunted him. Tommy, his best friend, his brother, death continued to haunted him. He had been told respectively by both his supervising and commanding officer that Tommy’s death was not his fault. There was nothing that he could have done differently to save him. But that still didn’t wash away the memory of watching the light in his friend’s eye fade away as the enemies bullets continued to rain down on them. The military psychologist had diagnosed him with onset PTSD, but he ignored the calls for him to see a therapist. The culmination of everything that he had done, all he had faced, and that final firefight was what forced his honourable discharged from the military. War changes a person. It haunts the survivors to the grave and creates ghosts out of those who were lost. War damages, destroys and takes. It never gives, it is never good, but a reality that the world continues to face. 

 

He could not understand how she managed to heal parts of him that we so damaged, so darkened, by his past. But she did. She found them, soothed them, and healed them. She was an angel to him, sent by unknown forces to heal him just as much as he had hoped he had healed her. She could quell his demons, warring to the surface when he dreamt. She could see the anger, the damage, the guilt, within him and not be repulsed by it. And for that he was grateful. He trusted her. He believed in her. He was in love with her. He equally dreaded and welcomed those who wished to harm her. He dreaded them because he feared he could not protect her in those moments. He welcomed them because he wished to end those who wished to harm her. He knew that he would not be able to continue if he lost her. He had lost too much already. Losing her was not an option and he would do everything in his powers to ensure that, that would never happen.

 

…

 

He was the one to let go of her hand first. Both of them immediately missed each other’s touch, the loss of each other’s strength was quantifiably palpable. They had arrived. She grabbed and squeezed his hand before they had to stow away their third hearts and begin to display their first.  

 

The banquet was held in honour of her fifth year as CEO and the job she had done in those five years. Everyone was there. From board members, to members of the government, the private sector, members of the scientific and intelligentsia community, and the media. Security was heightened to a degree that provided little chance of anything happening. Oliver had coordinated and planned it all out himself, to ensure that everyone, especially her, would be protected.

 

It was a stipulation of hers, one that she had made years before that he kept her in a line of sight instead of physically following her in at events like this. She had said it made her uncomfortable, but he knew that was never the case. He knew that he never made her uncomfortable while he was in close proximity to her. They had, had a massive fight over this very stipulation, one in which she won, but only by a sliver.

 

The crowd had been sequestered in the main ballroom waiting for the speeches to begin. It was a chance for everyone to mingle before the ceremonial part of the banquet was to begin. He watched as she detached herself from John, Lyla, Thea and Roy, and made her way around the ballroom to chat with the guests, as was required of her. He knew she hated this part of her job, but she did it always with grace and a smile on her face. It was in these moments that her true strength shone through.

 

As he continued to watch her make her around the room he felt the hairs on his neck spike. A feeling of danger and dread immediately engulfed him. Seconds later he began to hear the sound of gunfire fill the ballroom. All he could think about was her. He had to get to her. He had to protect her. In that moment his first two hearts faded to the background and his third heart, his truest heart emerged. The heart beating wildly and uncontrollably, engulfed in absolute fear for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, I have no background in bioengineering so my description of the mutating cell detector is a complete fabrication. I have no idea how any of that tech actually works or even if it actually exists. So please don't rip me a new one if I got it wrong. 
> 
> Secondly, the closets position that I could think of that would parallel that of an archer in the military is that of a sniper, which is the position that Oliver held within the military in the context of this story. Just to clarify if anyone was confused. 
> 
> Thirdly, PTSD is a serious issue and one that should not be taken lightly. It is a disorder that affects many, and many of those individuals who suffer from it suffer in silence and they should never have to. PTSD is nothing to be ashamed of. The only people who should be ashamed of PTSD are those who disregard the significance of harm this disorder causes and those within the different governments that do not provide enough funding or support to soldiers, first responders and law enforcement who are affected by the disorder. It is and will never be my intention to dishonour the reality of this disorder.


	3. Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry that it has taken me so long to post up this chapter. My muse seems to have gone on a long walk regarding this story. I've re-written this chapter so many times that I've lost count. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter! As always I love hearing what you have to say about the chapter so comment away!

* * *

 

 

_Love is a bloodsport. Love is all-consuming. Love is terrifying. Love is painful. Love is utterly devastating. Love is also exhilarating. Love is brilliant. Love is completely euphoric. Love is absolute magic. Love is the stars and the universe and the very oxygen you breathe boiled down to a single feeling. Love requires you to surrender; surrender your mind, your body, and your soul.  Love takes and love gives. Love splits you open and lays you bare. Love exposes every piece of you. And that is the risk. Loving someone is a risk. It makes you vulnerable because it’s no longer just you, it is now two. The beat of your heart now depends on the beating of another. Sometimes you chose to hide from love, sometimes love finds you. Sometimes it happens unexpectedly or sometimes it’s right in front of you. Love makes you irrational. Love cannot be measured nor counted. Love is constantly tested. Love is dangerous. Love far often outweighs the risk, and sometimes it doesn’t, but that is the risk. Love is pain and pleasure, heaven and hell, delight and disappointment. That is love. Love is a bloodsport, one that requires your truest heart._

Oliver was well acquainted with fear. He had been conditioned to ignore it, had become desensitized to it on the battlefield. Soldiers are trained to overcome their fears, ignore their most basic flight instincts. To let their training guide every action, every emotion, every thought when facing an enemy target. Fear was dangerous to the survival of a solider. Fear was dangerous to the survival of the lives of their fellow soldiers. Oliver had learned to overcome fear; it didn’t affect his actions, his emotions, or his thinking in high-risk confrontations. War had taught him that fear had consequences. He had gained strength in that knowledge. He had hardened himself to fear. But nothing, no training, no conditioning, no armor could have ever prepared him for her and the fear that went along with being by her side, or more importantly, the fear that went along with loving her.

 

Oliver had lied to himself for a long time. He willfully ignored, repressed, and fled the emotions that clouded his mind and the feelings that gripped his heart when it came to her. Every emotion, every feeling, was an onslaught on his senses that he had no defence against. He never thought that a single person could cause him such misery and joy that she so beautifully embodied. Every moment he was near her, his heart warmed, his mind clouded, his smile came willing. He felt truly alive, in a very long time, when he was with her.  He tried, desperately, to bury what he felt for her. The truth was within arm’s reach, a truth that scared him, a truth that haunted his dreams, a truth that he slowly admitted to himself to be true. He loved Felicity, a love that he had never felt, never thought he would be capable of. He admitted to himself that no matter how much he ran, he much he buried, the love he felt for her was true, the truest thing he had ever known. A love so pure, so unexpected, so untainted by the darkness in the world that he scarcely believed to be true.  A love that he would be happily, willingly give his life to protect.  

 

The first time that he had felt fear, true gut-wrenching indescribable fear, was the first time that someone had gone after her. The man, a paparazzo, had become obsessed with Felicity. He wanted a full exposé on her life. The paparazzo became more fearless and more relentless in trying to get photos and information on her. The paparazzo actions terrified Oliver, more so than any enemy combatant he ever faced, because this time he felt powerless to protect her. None of his skills, none of his training, could stop the man.

 

Every time the paparazzo got to close, every time that he wasn’t with her, every time she wasn’t within his line of sight, his heart beat erratically. His nerves reached wits end and his emotions bubbled so close to the surface. The fear that engulfed him was nothing like he had ever felt before. The resurgence of emotions, emotions that he hadn’t felt in years, emotions he thought a broken man could no longer have, emotions that he had tried so hard to bury, unearthed themselves.

 

Eventually the paparazzo made a mistake, a mistake that rid him from Felicity’s life. For a long time the paparazzo remained on the somewhat murky but albeit legal side of his occupation, but the need for a story compelled him to overstep his bounds. As relentless and fearless as the paparazzo got so did Felicity. Oliver’s need to protect Felicity didn’t match the need she had when it came to protecting herself. Time and time again Oliver witnessed the quiet strength and independence that was inherently a part of her. She hacked the paparazzo computer and home network and turned the tables on him, forcing him out into the open and airing his dirty secrets. The paparazzo dropped the story immediately. The circumstances surrounding the paparazzo served as a warning to all other paparazzi of what would happen to them if they went after her; come after her and she would come after you.  

 

While the threats continued to come over the years, the fear that came along with them, that came along being with her, did not lessen. Oliver’s fears only increased as his relationship with Felicity became closer and closer. While the risks and the fears weighed often on his mind they did not overshadow the good, the joy and the love he felt for her. He loved her. He now understood the emotions and feelings that ran rampant when he was around her and when he wasn’t. Nothing could ever take away from the feeling when he was near her, the happiness, the light, the love that coursed through his body. She had given him a purpose, a purpose that he never imagined, never thought possible. She became his center. And for the first time, in a long time, Olive felt that he could finally breathe.     

 

In all the years, in all the time they had spent together, nothing could ever equal the fear that now coursed through his body. In that moment his system was flooded with fear. Fear erupted through his body, hijacking every sense, every thought, his heart pounded beneath his chest, rendering him helpless, in the face of a gunman.

 

The gunman stood not even five feet from him, surrounded by nearly a dozen security guards all with their guns aimed. It was not a situation that was unfamiliar to Oliver; he had been in ones similar to this one. But this time it was different. This time the gunman didn’t hold a random person in a position of life or death. This time, the gunman held the one person that he could not live without, the one person he had never expected, the one person who had the ability to annihilate him. The gunman held his third heart. The gunman held Felicity tight within in his grips with a gun aimed at her head.

 

Oliver could see the terror in her eyes. Her body trembled in the grasp of the gunman. He could feel the fear emanating from her body.  All he wanted to do in that moment was hold her, to tell her that there was nothing to be scared of, that he was here and he would do everything to protect.

 

He would do everything to protect her. He knew that if it came down to it he would trade his life for her, always. He lived only because she did. He only began to live, truly live, when his third heart began to beat and she was the reason for it. He never understood what people said about loving someone with their whole body, their whole soul, their whole heart, until that moment.

 

He tried to reason with the gunman. He and the other guards laid down his weapon to appease him. But the more he tried the more agitated the gunman became. Oliver knew the look that streamed through the gunman’s eyes. It was one he had seen countless times before. The gunman was becoming erratic, letting all of his other emotions cloud his judgement and his actions. The gunman was becoming unpredictable.

 

Fear was not what drove Oliver to move. Love did. He had to protect Felicity, the consequences be damned. He had laid his life down for his country, had done it countless of times, every mission, every tour. But nothing could compare to the actions he was about to take because while he had bled and nearly died for his country, every breath he took, every beat of his heart was because of her.

 

Oliver didn’t feel the bullet enter his chest. He didn’t feel the pain of the bullet tearing through his body until he hit the ground. He didn’t feel the blood pouring out of his chest. All he could hope for was that she was safe. All he could hear were her screams racked with terror.

 

**…**

Felicity had an intimate relationship with fear. For the longest time fear had controlled her life. Fear controlled the decisions she made, the steps she took, and the people she met. Fear had become the driving force behind her life. The loss of her mother, then her father, embedded fear deep within her soul. She knew rationally that fear shouldn’t have stopped her from making decisions, taking the steps she took and the people she let into her life, but it did. She tried but failed to ignore the fear that gnawed at her. So she decided to stop resisting it. And for the longest time she allowed fear to have the ultimate control over her life. That was true until she met him.

 

Felicity was wary of the idea of a personal bodyguard when John and Lyla had proposed the idea. It was not uncommon for her to have a bodyguard, she had, had plenty over the years. What made her uncomfortable was the idea of a personal bodyguard, someone that would become intimately embedded within her life, a life that she had carefully crafted, a life based on fear. But she relented to her godparents’ pleas for her safety. It was a decision that she made for her own self-interest but for theirs.

 

Trust did not come easily to Felicity, trust she learned had to be doled out carefully. Because of who she was, the positions she held, a bull’s eye had be planted on her back since the moment she was a born. One in which had been struck numerous of times over her short life. She did not trust Oliver, not immediately. While a thorough background check and numerous of other not-so-legal checks had been conducted prior to his employment, the undefinable feelings that filled Felicity whenever he was around was unexplainable. In the beginning, Felicity chose to ignore them. She chose to ignore the feelings, of what felt like calm, or peace, whenever he was around. His presence was like a balm, a balm which soothed the fear that had become such an intimate part of her life. She could not explain the feelings and the emotions that streamed through her mind and body when she was around him.

 

In time, Oliver broke through all the barriers she had erected to protect herself. Barriers created by fear, fear that had buried itself so deep within herself that she no longer acknowledged its presence, its control, in her life. Time and time again he had proven himself to her. She never expected him, never expected that one person could tear down all that she had built, all the work she had done to bury her true self. She had been hurt too many times before, been disappointed too many times to allow for someone to ever see her true self. But he did. He did time and time again. As hard and as many times that she had pushed him away, he came back. He always came back to her. He earned her trust and opened her heart in the process.

 

Yet fear still remained in the recesses of her mind and heart. No matter how hard she tried to rid itself from her, it remained. Fear has become so internalized within herself that she didn’t know how to truly function without it. Fear was a part of her. It was Oliver that taught her that fear would always be a part of her, but that it need not control her. She learnt that fear could be a catalyst, a catalyst that she controlled, not the other way around.

 

The fear that coursed through her body now electrified every one of her senses. It was the type of fear that she had only felt once before. The type of fear she never wished to feel again.

 

Felicity didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. One moment Oliver was a few feet away from her and the gunman, the next he was lying on the ground, blood seeping from his wound. The gunman released Felicity the moment he fired his gun at Oliver, giving the other guards the chance to take him down. She ran to him as fast as she could. Her hands applying pressure to his wounds. Tears streamed down her face. She begged him to stay with her. She kept saying that he couldn’t leave her, that he promised that he would never leave her. She kept repeating she loved him. Her pleas echoed in the silenced ballroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I initially started this story I had a grand masterful plan for it, but now I'm not so sure if I want to continue with the masterful plan. So I want your opinion. I can end the story in the next 2 chapters or I can continue with the plan that I had first set out. Which one do you want to continue reading?


	4. Echoes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has taken me so long to post this chapter. I've had a really hard time writing something that I actually like, so I apologize for the delay. I have yet to decide where I really want this story to go, whether to continue with the original plot or not, so expect a few more chapters. 
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter! :)

* * *

 

 

_Love remains. Love is resilient. Love endures. Love cannot be created nor destroyed. Love can only be found. For some, the journey is treacherous, filled with unseen turns, unknown obstacles and moments of sheer heartbreak and tears. For others, the journey is sweet, filled with nothing but happiness, laughter and delightful surprise. Love can be loud, shouted from the roof tops for all to hear. Love can be quiet, whispered to only one other in the darkness of night. In our darkest moments we return to it. When we are away from it we ache. When it is within our grasp we revel in it. It is the centre, the still point that calms us in this ever spinning world. It is the gravity which keeps us grounded.  Love is the shield that surrounds us, that makes us safe. In a world that is often shrouded in darkness and brutality, love remains the beacon, the light, which guides us forth. Love need not be spoken to be understood. Love can be said through a single touch, a look, a smile, or a kiss. Love remains when we are old and withered. Love remains when our memories fade. Love remains when we wash away our masks and let our armour fall to the ground. Love is the one constant that remains when all else fails, the constant that defies all odds. When everything in the world burns away all that is left is love. Love remains in the truest of your hearts._

Felicity never craved the darkness. In fact, she feared the darkness as a child. The darkness was where monsters hid and secrets lied. The darkness was a mystery, one that she had desperately tried to unravel but could not solve. She thought it ironic now. The darkness that she once feared now represented the haven within the life that she now resided. The darkness now held all that she held dear. The darkness held the words, the touches, the glances that she so desperately craved every hour of every day. The darkness held freedom, freedom she wished she could revel in for so much longer than time allowed. She could let go and be herself in the darkness. In the darkness she could be with the one person that showed her that the darkness was nothing to be frightened of, but the sanctuary she so desperately sought. The darkness that now held him.  

                                            

It had been five days since Oliver had been shot. Five days since she watched the man that she loved with every ounce of her being bleed out in front of her eyes. Five days since she had last spoken a full sentence. Five days since she had last eaten a full meal. Five days since had felt warm. Five days since she had really slept. Five days since she had really taken a breath. Five days since she had felt her heart truly beat.

 

Five excruciating days she had spent in pure darkness without him.

 

She replayed the promises that he had made her in her head over and over again. He promised that he would never leave her. That she would never lose him. That he would always be by her side. That he would always protect her. She remembered the night he made those promises. Promises made in the darkness of the night. She remembered the pitter-patter of the rain against the windows, the booming sound of the thunder, the smell of rain wafting through the room. She remembered the erratic beating of her heart, the clawing fear that enveloped her body, the anguish that filled her heart, the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes.

 

She thought that she had finally lost him that night. Like everyone else that she had loved, she would lose him too. She thought that she had finally driven him away. That he had enough. That he would leave her. She pulled back every time he pushed forward. She had spent so much time burying her true self that she hid even deeper every time he had pushed aside the walls that she had so carefully constructed. She was scared, scared of what it would mean to truly open herself to the vulnerability of loving someone so deeply, down to her very core.

 

As much as she wanted to run, she was equally hoping that he would stay and fight for her. They had fought, fought about her safety and the unnecessary risks she had been taking. They had fought over whether they were supposed to be in each other’s lives. She remembered his words, his questions, so pointedly asked. She remembered him asking if she wanted him to leave, if she wanted him to stay, if she really needed him. They both understood the unspoken words beneath his questions, the plea behind his questions. He was asking if she would let him love her. He was asking if she could love him back.  

 

They had reached a precipice, one in which they had to decide whether they continue together or continue apart. One half of her wanted him to desperately stay, to stay with her forever, to let him love her just as much as she loved him. Oliver was the one person that she could completely trust, the one person that understood all the parts of her. He was the only person that she could be just herself with.  The one person that she believed she could truly open her heart to. The other half of her wanted him to leave, to leave so that she could never truly be hurt ever again. Leave so that she could retain the walls she had so carefully constructed to protect herself from the world. Leave so she could maintain the control she needed to continue on. She wanted him to leave so that she could remain in complete self-imposed isolation that had been her world since she watched her father die in front of her eyes.

 

The feeling of desperation Felicity felt in those moments mirrored the feelings she felt now, sitting in the darkness, alone, straining to remember sound of his voice, the feel of his touch upon her hand, and his breathtaking smile reserved only for her. She strained to remember the echoes of their shared loved in the darkness that now surrounded her.

 

She remembered feeling that surge of love, of utter happiness, of relief, as he stepped towards her in the darkness that fateful stormy night and promised to never leave her, to stand by her side, to protect her, and to bear the burdens that came with her life. She knew in that moment, that walking away from him was as equally unfathomable as him walking away from her. He had become a part of her without her even realizing it. He swept all her demons away, banished all the ghosts, made her heart beat faster and harder than she had ever felt before. He brought down all her walls with one look. He made her promises that echoed through the room like the thunder of the storm outside.

 

She walked freely into his open arms that night, enveloping herself in his warmth, in his strength, in his love. She so desperately wished she could feel all those things once again, if only for a moment. The darkness was once again her daunting foe, holding all that she held dear in its grasp, enveloping her in its clawing cold grasp. She only hoped that she had enough strength for the both of them to get through the darkness.

 

The small bit of warmth seeping into her hand was all that kept her grounded in what felt like an eternal darkness. The warmth seeping from his hand, connected to his motionless body that tubes and wires now sprouted from. Machines kept constant vigilance of his miraculous survival. The doctors and nurses could not believe that he had survived that amount of blood loss. The bullet had torn a path through his body rupturing blood vessels mere centimeters from his heart. But he had survived. His heart continued to beat just before the paramedics arrived. Paramedics that desperately sought to keep his heart beating until they arrived at the hospital and hurried him into surgery. Surgery that saw his heart stop beating twice before the doctors could finally revive him. Now here he was, motionless, but alive in the darkness of the room that she was now in. And had been for the last five excruciating days, waiting, watching, for him to come back to her, to turn the desolation of the darkness back into the haven that they had created together.

 

**…**

 

For so long, Oliver had lived in the darkness, truly believing that it was the only place a man like him would be worthy of living in. Self-loathing, hopelessness, emptiness, loneliness were his constant companions. Home was no longer what he remembered it to be. He had been hardened to the world, seeing only the darkness that had insidiously affected it. Darkness that he initially believed he was fighting against when he signed up for the army. That was true. It was all true until he found her. Felicity gave him a purpose, a reason, to be better, to do better, and to believe that he was worth more than what he previously believed. She taught him to believe in the good and the light that still existed within in the world. She showed him the light within the darkness, the light that still existed within him.

 

Light he did not think still existed after everything he had seen, everything he had done. But she had proven him wrong. She was quite remarkable that way, always proving that there was another way, another path. A path where they could continue down together, always with her by his side, banishing the darkness.  

 

Unknowingly, she breached all his defenses, wave by wave she took them down, until she found a way in, a way into his heart. She left a mark upon his heart, so deep, so entrenched, that nothing and no one could erase it. She was all that he needed, all that he wanted, endlessly, for now and forever.

 

And that scared him. Scared him more than anything he had ever faced.

 

He didn’t want to hurt her. He had hurt so many others before, without even trying. And she was like no one else before. She was important, more important to him than practically everyone else in the world. It was his job to protect her and he saw no greater enemy to her safety than himself. For so long he had been a man shrouded in darkness and misery and he did not want to bring more upon her. She had suffered enough already.

 

For a long time he had tried to ignore the pull that she had on him. He tried to ignore all of her babbling innuendoes, the shared looks and touches, the furious pounding of his heart whenever she was near. But that night, that fateful night, he couldn’t do it anymore. He couldn’t fight it anymore. He had fought, every feeling, every emotion, when it came to her, but that night it all came crumbling down. In the darkness, with no walls separating the two of them, with no one else but the two of them, he opened himself up. He handed the keys to his heart. And in that moment he had never felt more afraid or more vulnerable.

 

And yet again she had proven how truly remarkable she really was. She had suffered before, seen the depths of true darkness, lost so much, had so many of her own demons and yet she embraced him. All of him, and he could not be more thankful. The warmth that spread through his body just by holding her was like nothing he could ever imagine or describe. And it was the same warmth that spread through him every time he was near her, every time that he held her. The warmth never faded, but grew more and more each time, becoming more intense with every touch.

 

In those moments the darkness faded.  

 

But the darkness had returned once again.

 

Oliver’s attempts to calm his breathing and nerves did little to mediate the desperation that coursed through him. All he could remember was the need to get to her, to make sure she was safe, to make sure she was protected.

 

The need to be near her was palpable.

 

He could hear her screams echoing in his mind.

 

He could hear the anguish that engulfed her screams. Begging him to stay with her, reminding him of the promises he had made to her. And in her screams he heard the words, those three words that he ached to hear. Words that he wished he could repeat to her over and over again, knowing the absolute truth of those three words.

 

He loved her.

 

He loved her with every ounce of his being.  

 

He needed to get back to her.

 

He needed to tell her those three words that nearly erupted from his mouth whenever he was near her.

 

He never doubted his love for her once he accepted it, and he had to make sure she never doubted his love for her.   

 

He needed to leave to darkness. He needed to see her light again.

 

He had to move, had to fight, to get out of the darkness.

 

He was desperate to feel her warmth once again.

 

The sound that pierced his ears was an annoying. It felt so foreign in the silence that resided in the dark space. His body ached, his chest burned. His mind was clouded with fatigue, fatigue that was like nothing he had ever felt before.

 

He felt her before he could see her. The burning sensation that he felt every time that they touched surrounded his right hand.

 

He forced his head to turn, despite the pain that coursed through his body. He had to see her. Had to know that she was really there and not a figment of his desperate mind. He was met with an image that always brought a smile to his face. He saw the brilliant blue of her eyes despite the darkness that surrounded the two of them. He saw the face of the woman he loved. He saw the one person that gave his life meaning. He saw his Felicity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always want to hear about your thoughts about the chapter, so comment away, good or bad.


	5. Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been almost a year since I've update this fic. It's taken me almost a year to figure out how I wanted to end this fic. The amount of notes and scribbles that I have for this fic outpace all of my other fics. All of them! 
> 
> Note that there has been a ratings change. You can guess why there has been a rating change, I'm sure. 
> 
> I truly did not know how I wanted to end this fic but a burst of inspiration came through and here it is. The chapter is certainly not perfect but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it (even as long as it took to write it).
> 
> As always, I love hearing what you have to say, good or bad, about the fic so comment below.

 

* * *

 

 

_Love is a fire. Love is a burning need that is near impossible to extinguish. Love consumes. Love engulfs. Love ignites. Love makes you crazy. Love haunts every fibre of your being. Love sets your body, your heart, your mind, and your soul aflame. This kind of love is not easily sated. It dominates every one of your senses. You become attuned, in every way possible, to one single person. This kind of love is endless. You crave for it. You ache for it. You cannot get enough of it. It invades every thought, every dream, and every innocent touch. It’s all you want, all you thought it could be, and everything that you never even dreamed. You think about it day and night. Every dream, every thought, every touch becomes possessed by this fire. The burn is enchanting, and beautiful, and carnal. This fire, this love, resides in the truest of your hearts._

 

 

If he could choose one moment, one person, to spend the rest of his life with, he would choose her. Always her. He would spend lifetimes in this moment, and moments like this, with her.

 

His heart pounded beneath his chest. His blood thrummed wildly through his veins. His breath quickened. His muscles burned. And he did not care. He was irrevocably and absolutely in love with her.

He could scarcely describe what he felt when their lips collided against one another’s but thoughts of having never felt this close, this connected, this intertwined, mind, body and soul, with another person came to mind. His lips, his chest, his arms and legs, were all pressed against hers, igniting a flame that was never truly extinguished.

 

Moments like this were what he craved, ached for, all the time when they were apart.

 

Her moans filled the air, as his lips trailed down her neck, nipping her delicate smooth skin, as he moved down her body towards her nude chest. His lips, his tongue, his eyes, mapped, memorized, every inch, every dip, every curve and scar on her body, a body that belonged to him just as much as his body belonged to her. His desire to feel her, to pleasure her, to please her, exploded as his lips moved down her flat stomach, circling her navel, inch by inch.

 

His love, his feelings, his need to protect her could never be filled. He would endeavour to show her every ounce of love he felt for her until his dying breath.

 

Just the slightest of touches of his bare skins against hers burned in him the most pleasant and sensuous of ways that words could barely describe. He was addicted to this feeling, this fire, just as he knew she was. He would never tire of it. He would never tire of her. He would always choose her, would always want to be with her.

 

Her moans got louder, more demanding, filled with desire and need, as he skimmed over her center and down her inner thighs to her calves. She would feel the burn, the ache, of them joined together in the most beautiful of ways, every time her thighs brushed together as she sat in her office the next morning of the 50th floor of the building that bared her name on its side. His smile at the thought, as he moved back up her body, back to where she was begging for him to be. He loved teasing her, drawing her out, pleasuring her in a way no other person had the privilege of doing before. He licked, sucked, kissed, and devoured her, as she begged for more and more. Her body was completely flushed pink as his hands wrapped around her hips, keeping her from thrashing against him, as he elicited ever more of her moans and shouts with just his lips and tongue.

 

He loved seeing her like this, completely unravelled, completely unhinged and unguarded, completely herself. She had one whispered to him, in the dead of night, their bodies still joined together, slicked with sweat, sleep drawing close to both of them, that he was the only person, the only one that could make her feel like that, completely safe, protected, loved, and herself, her true self, all at once. He would endeavour to give her such an opportunity to do so, every day, every night, for the rest of her their lives if she so allowed.

 

Their lips were joined once again. Her fingers dragged up and down his back, creating trails of flames in their wake. His lips moved from her face, to her cheeks, her chin, her forehead, her eyelids, before they trailed back down to her neck, his favourite place in the world. His arms curled around her body, completely engulfing her, as her legs drew around his back, as he slowly pushed into her. Moans coming from body of their mouths, as her back arched, his hands coming to cup her backside. One that he could spend hours staring at if allowed.

Their bodies burned, as he moved deeper, harder, into her. Again and again and again. He watched from his desired-filled, pupil blown, eyes as she began to unravel. Her screams becoming louder and louder, the harder and faster her moved into her.

He loved her. For that was the only certainty he knew. He never thought that he would be her, to be with her in every sense that the word together meant. In the last moments before he lost consciousness as his blood flowed out of his body all those months ago, he saw her. He saw the first moment his lips ever touched hers, a memory that had so deeply, so profoundly, engrained itself upon his memory, that he could never forget it. For so long he had buried, hidden, ignored, his desire, his need, his love for her that it became part of his daily routine, whether he was awake or in his dreams. This pulsing ache to touch her, to hold her, to be near her, to love her and be able to tell her soul, burned through him.

 

None of that even filtered into his mind, as he delved into her body once again, their bodies locked in a passionate embrace, surrounded and dictated by the love they had for one another.

 

Her fingers curled into his hair, tugging his body even closer to her, as their bodies pulsed in sync together.

 

_Felicity_. Her name slipped from his lips as he came inside her, her body milking and spasming around him.His Felicity. His happiness. His love. His everything. She was the only person who could calm him in a raging storm, guide him to the light when the darkness surrounded him, and love him in a way that he did not deem himself worthy of. She was the only person that could make him smile, no matter the situation they were in.

 

His want, his need, his desire, and his love for her would never waver or falter, would never be truly sated, as their bodies collapsed against each other’s, their hands gently trailing the other’s body. Both of them were covered in sweat but none of that mattered. All that mattered was an indescribable blissful euphoria that coursed through the both of them. He never wanted it to end. He never wanted to leave. He never wanted to let her go. If he could, he would choose to stay here, with her, for forever. 

 

 

**…**

The constant spotlight on her was one of the things she most despised about who she was, the lineage and last name she was attached to. She had lived that way most of her life, eyes on her everywhere she went, watching her every step, catching every mistake, commentating about her every aspect of her life and how she was supposed to live it. The attention only increased after the loss of her mother and then her father. She hated it. She hated it all. That was until now. Until him. Until she finally opened her heart and let him in.

 

She could feel the scorching stare of his eyes on her. A small smile crept up on her face from just the thought that his eyes were trained exclusively on her and no on else. The explosion of flames burned her entire body just from his gaze, causing her to rub her thighs together to still the desire in the pit of her stomach.

 

She could feel his gaze on her legs as they trailed from her high-heel enclosed feet, up her shapely calves and onto her beard-burned thighs courtesy of their bathroom rendezvous this morning. She knew he loved her legs. He had spent hours, and would spend many more if he could, tracing intricate patterns onto her legs and mapping every inch of them with his hands. She felt his gaze move up her torso and land squarely on her chest, his gaze lingering for an inordinate period of time there. He loved kissing, licking, marking her chest whenever possible. She could fight and deny all she wanted, but she loved it too. She loved being connected to him on such an intimate level that she had never truly shared with anyone else. She couldn’t help herself as she pressed a finger under her left breast where he had left his mark during last night’s lovemaking. Her neck was the next place she felt his heated gaze. Oliver could spend hours devouring, nipping, burying his face into her neck. He had spent hours doing so. It was his favourite place on earth, she remembered him saying once. The moment his eyes landed on her face she felt her cheeks flush pink and the smile on her face grow larger. She knew that he knew that he had been caught staring. His gaze felt like gentle caresses against her cheeks, her chin, her nose and eyes, before landing on her lips. Lips that now ached to feel his pressed against hers.

 

The moment her eyes met his, he was moving quickly towards her office doors from his post in the lobby. She couldn’t help but smirk as she looked over her shoulder to see him storm through her office door, towards her as she moved to enter her ensuite bathroom with him following.

 

The loud bang of the door slamming shut and locking stirred her from her thoughts as she stared at him. He moved towards her as she walked back into the wall, still smirking, her teeth dragging against her bottom lip as she awaited his next move.

 

His arms surrounded her as his lips crashed into her. Her entire body lit up in flames from his heated touch against her clothed body. She pulled as his suit jacket as his lips began their descent down her neck. The indecent noices and commands that left her lips echoed against the tiled walls of the bathroom, intensifying the fire that grew between the two of them. She closed her eyes as she let the moment take over her. Encased in his arms, his lips against her neck, she let the loved that they shared consume her.

 

Clothes began to litter the ground as their movements became more aggressive, both of them aching to feel each other’s bare skin. Desire and need driving both of them. Her body was shocked as her naked back was pressed into the tiled walls, her legs curling against his back, her heels digging into his ass. He thrust into her without any preamble making her moan incoherently. She could feel the carefully coiled power embodied with him began to falter the more and more he powered into her.

 

His voice filtered through her heated haze asking her to look at him as he continued to thrust into her. The sight that met hers was one that she hoped to see everyday for the rest of her life. Her thumb gently traced the small near-invisible scar under his left eye as her other hand gently grasped onto the chest scar that nearly stole her from him. She could see so much in his eyes, desire, need, joy, contentment, safety, life, love, twinkling at her. She could stare into his eyes for eternity and know that it would not be enough, never enough. She had opened her heart to this man, a man she could have lost mere months ago without telling him, showing him truly how deeply she cared for and loved him. The type of love that she felt for him was nothing she had felt before, nothing she ever thought she would ever feel. But here, safely encased in his loving arms she could not help but reflect the lascivious smile on his face, and let herself open completely and truly to him once again.

 

She knew every part of him now, every dark crevice, every hidden belief, every quiet dream, every fear, every aversion, every self-hatred thought he had and all the events of his past that led him to her. She was grateful that he had opened his heart up to her just as she did to him. She loved every part of him and all the parts that he believed did not deserve her. It made her only love him more, cherish him more, and be ever grateful that the bullet that was meant for her did not take away the one person she needed most in the world.

  

She walked through and would walk through every dark path with him to bring him some peace and light into his life. She would not allow his past to consume him, just as he would not allow her past to consume her. They had come together broken and closed off from the world but somehow found a way to heal each other, to bring each other back to life. She would savour every moment that she had with him, whether it was waking up first thing in the morning or tracing patterns across his hands during long drives.

 

They continued to savour each other’s body until both of them reached the pinnacle of pleasure, panting and sweating against each other, their shouts still echoing in her ears as they both came down from their highs. They quietly redressed on another, not talking, letting the stillness and contentment both of them felt permeate through the room.

 

Oliver’s fingers nimbly buttoned her blouse as she did the same thing, gently pressing kisses against each other’s lips with each button. Smiles broke out on both of their faces as they finished at the same time.

 

“I love you, Felicity.”

 

“I love you too, Oliver.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How this fic ended up was not how I originally planned it. I had a grand plan for this fic. It was also supposed to be a lot longer. 
> 
> The original plot was that Felicity and Oliver would over time begin to open all three of their hearts to one another in the context of a high stakes and dangerous plot to kidnap/blackmail Felicity into giving up her company and a secret serum that her parents had created.These people were behind the ploy to kidnap/kill Felicity were the same ones that had ambushed and killed her father and seriously injured her, as well as the ones to hire the gunman that took Felicity hostage and shot Oliver. I had also wanted to explore the PTSD that Oliver suffered and the loss of Felicity's parents on Felicity on their psyches. As you've read not all of that happened. I'm sorry about that. My muse did not want to write that story unfortunately. She's quite fickle that way. 
> 
> Hopefully you enjoyed this fic. Even if you didn't, I'm glad I finished it. Thank you for reading! :)


End file.
